Windham World Cup Recap 2012

Well, I have just finished off a two month road trip with seven races in eight weekends. Yesterday was World Cup #6 in Windham, New York. A nice small mountain town with a ski hill that put's on a killer venue for a UCI mountain bike World Cup.

Last Monday myself, along with the National Team made the drive from Monte-St-Anne to Place Placid, NY for a night's pit stop and a morning training ride. We stayed right across from the legendary HoJo's(Howard Johnson) restaurant where only two original one's remain in the U.S. After we were stuff on the buffet some went to bed and some went downtown to check things out. Last year we stopped there as well and it just happen to be the 4th of July, which ended up being pretty neat. Morning ride on some local trails was pretty awesome. Afternoon drive to Windham, where we arrived to our favorite accommodation in  Windham, the Thompson Hose. With a river next door, pool, shuffle board, mini-put, tennis, breakfasts and dinners it it quite the vacation place. Spent some days riding our bikes on the course, getting a sun tan and resting in the creek/pool. Team Canada spirits were high, as usual, and we were all quietly confident and excited for the race. After a great showing in every category and every discipline last weekend at home in Monte-St-Anne I think everyone wanted to show our nations power one more time.

Personally, my race was alright. Not great but not horrible, the only thing horrible was my start and first lap. It was an interesting start for the race, as we started in the town and rode almost 2 km up to the course and then did the 8-9 min climb. So really we started, race hard and fast up hills for something like 10-12 minutes and then descended back down to the start/finish to finish off four more laps. I believe I came through at the end of the first lap about 35~ isshh, a whole lot worse than last weekend, and just tried to think as positive as possibly and started to push through riders lap by lap. Finished off 23rd, not what I was hoping for after a 13th last weekend. I definitely wasn't climbing as well as last weekend, but hey that's bike racing! No matter what your handed you have to take it and go with it, head up and look forward.  Great work by all the Canadians out there! Pretty cool to see how many Canadians were out representing. Whether it be winning the race, finishing top-10 of competing in their first World Cup and taking away experience it was just great to be apart of the weekend.

We all have a fair sized break now to rest, regroup, train and make our selves hurt more than ever in the near weeks. With some heading over to London for a big one later this summer and others just prepping for provincial or local events. Myself, I am really REALLY looking forward to this weekend's Valley First Axel Merckx GrandFondo in Penticton, BC. It will be a great way to have fun, meet people and enjoy the fantastic scenery of the Okanagan Valley.

Today was a fantastic wind down and capped off a great trip. Little food eating followed by some mountain biking on local trails then watching the Downhill World Cup. Super excited to be apart of the crowd when Steve Smith took the lead with only one rider to go, who of which beat Smith's time. But it was pretty cool as usually our venue's are separate or just don't mesh with travel.

Hopefully some good stories throughout the summer as the racing settles down for a while. Looks like the next race with be a 3-day mountain bike stage race in Fernie, BC called TR3.

Big thanks to all who supported me on this trip. Couldn't have done it without the help and support.

Picture update extravaganza below:

Race Report on CanadianCyclist: http://canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=24466

Race Report on PedalMag: http://pedalmag.com/?p=164119&c

Video Reports & Interviews on CyclingDirt: http://www.cyclingdirt.org/

 Swimming hole?

 Nope.

 Thanks to the GoPro, I didn't need to climb in to get the view..

 Swimming area, thanks to Max Plaxton!

No stress about bike racing.

Leandre Bouchard tearing up the creek.

Post race recovery ride, National team style.

Big fun group ride.

View of Windham.

Downhill course.

Cross country finish area.

Downhill finish area.

Life of a biker, pack bike, build bike, race bike, hotel, repeat.

Here's an interview from last weeks World Cup in Mont-St-Anne:

Also made a new "album" for 2012 on Facebooks if your into that sort of stuff. I mean Facebook, sorry. But shouldn't it be Facebook(s) with an S, because there is more than one right?..

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151086550513083.503292.506058082&type=1

Here's a few more photo's I found from the trip last week:

 Recovery ride morning. Ran into Luna filming the course for Red Bull.

 Watching the Elite men on the famous "La Beatrice" descent in MSA.

View from the gondola in MSA. Rad day for downhilling!

 Travel meals while on our way to Lake Placid, New York.

New blog up on Rocky Mountain from the past two months of traveling. Check it out:

http://rockymountainbikes.tumblr.com/

Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup recap 2012

Well I had a nice little write up all done Friday night pre MSA World Cup but I didn`t save it correctly, so here comes the big one..well not that big, just full of sick pictures.

Let's start off with a video recap of our super awesome group ride post relay nationals last weekend:Click Here

After that the national team project I am taking part in started Monday in Mont-St-Anne, Quebec. Legendary for it's tough World Cup course and 22 straight years hosting the World Cup or World Championships. With water falls, lakes, trees, mountains and such it is a just a great place to have a world cup.

I was also fortunate enough to be present for the announcement of the men's and women's Olympic mountain bike team in St-Anne. It was great to see past Olympians and the new deserving soon to be Olympians. Rooming with Mr Max Plaxton this week and it was great to be around him for a few days before the 'official' announcement. He also killed it this weekend with a career high 5th! As well as doing a bunch of bicycle riding on course this week with Catharine Pendrel. Congrats to Emily Batty and Geoff Kabush, well deserved.

Did lot's of creekin' before the race: 

Race day came and I was pretty excited to just race my bicycle. Sainte Anne is probably my favourite course in the world and is pretty special to me as it's where I won my first mountain bike National Championships as a junior as well as winning a junior World Cup. 

Race reports can be found here:

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=24409

http://pedalmag.com/?p=163159&c

Our race took off at an early 9 am. Which called for a 5:45 wake to consume some water, coffee and breakfast. It was already balmy at 7 am and by 7:30 we I made my way to the venue my skin was getting moist from this humid eastern weather. Joined up with the many different spandex wearing cyclists. We started and then we went hard for 1.5 hrs and then we finished. I finished in 13th. It was just another bike race, things went well and I felt decent but had a pretty solid thinking head which helped me ride well. Crushed the technical descents on my Rocky Mountain Vertex 990 RSL. Bike was fast and light and can handle descending faster than guys on full suspensions..Sick? yah I know! I actually rode fast up the hills against them skinny Europeans which was quite nice. Things always seem easier when your feeling good and/or have a good race. I wouldn't say I had the best legs ever but I was just excited to race bikes and go fast on the best course on our home turf. I also had my bike working great thanks to our team mechanics and a fully functioning body thanks to our physio and some great motivation from the coaches. I think I also rode slightly faster because of all the people cheering  me on the hills! Thank you. It's funny how all the excuses from the top Euro riders are all about "jet lag" and when we go to Europe 2-4 times a year they don't think about that for us..but once a year to North America for them is sometimes too tough. It was tough enough that Olympic favorites in the elite men's and women's races opted not to come over. Lame. I was pretty damn excited to cut my time in half on my deficit to leader compared to last year. It was great that almost all the top-10 in the World Cup standing's for under-23 men were here. Enough about my race. 

If your into Strava, check out the race: http://app.strava.com/rides/11632182

And today's super sick DHing on the big hill: http://app.strava.com/rides/11632441

Plaxton killed it, Pendrel killed it, Marc-Antoine-Nadeau killed, Frederique Trudel killed it, Micayla Gatto killed it..Canada is going well on the podium this weekend. 

Video and photo updates also on http://www.cyclingdirt.org/video/643603

Today, since my bike team is awesome, I was fortunate enough to use a Rocky Mountain Slayer and do some downhill shuttling on the mountain. Probably the best post race recovery ride ever! GoPro footage coming soon to a computer near you..Or right to your computer. 

Time for some more creekin' and a cold brew to cap a great weekend thanks to Cycling Canada and all my support from Rocky Mountain, The Bike Barn, my family and friends. 

Well after I wrote a bunch of stuff down yesterday and then it didn't save I'll say that there is a race today.. World Cup time in Mont-Sainte-Anne Quebec. Bigger better and for awesome report coming post race. I will warn if I have a good race it could be done as soon as tonight but if I have a not so awesome race it could take a few days..

Post Nationals cross country and relay

I was one without internet for the past 5 days. So it's now time for the post Nationals, post relay nationals and post relay Nationals sUPER aWESOME fUN tIMES!

After arriving in Saint Felicien, Quebec last Wednesday I had spend two days pre-riding the fantastically designed and groomed nationals course. With jumps, berms, rocks, roots, ups, down, overs, under, twists and loose dirt it had Okanagan riding written all over it. It's too bad my legs didn't show up for the race..I won't get too into but it was not a good day to not have your legs there. After a big week of training of Kingston I thought I had rested up enough but apparently not. I rode in for 7th which isn't bad but I wanted to be on top of the podium and take that maple leaf jersey, or at the least be on the podium. It's been a long time since I have taken a national champion jersey and hoping I can take it back before this streak continues.   It was pretty cool to see Leandre "The Flying" Bouchard take the jersey yet again in front of him home crowd. Mitch Bailey once again second and my teammate Jeremy Martin in third. Podium repeat to a tee from 2011.

Can't get disappointed over races or it's just going to happen again. The bigger races are coming up the next two weeks with the Mont-Sainte-Anne and Windham World Cups. Looking for some good legs and big rides at these races before heading home for a long summer break in the Okanagan. Really looking forward to Axels GrandFondo on July 8th when I get home. Having  a great low stress event to ride in is going to be a great way to cap off a eight week, seven race block.

Full weekend race cap from the one and only Cycling Dirt all the way from the US of A.

Now comes the fun part! Relay Nationals Sunday, with some big smack talking happening the showdown was on. With Ontario taking all the pressure as the defending champions us with the BC Team had a quiet confidence with Max Plaxton taking the elite mens cross country title the day before and Catharine Pendral taking the womens. Our junior Quinn Moberg has a tough day along with myself in the cross country so we were looking for some redemption. I was our starter for BC and kept us in second position after the shortened mini lap of the course. Quinn took over and held us in third, Pendral pulled back into second place when she handed off to Plaxton but we didn't get it close enough as Max pulled back 15 of the 30 sec on the Ontario anchor. We rolled through for a solid second place, having that relay national title elude us for year two.

Post relay came the awesome and what now seems like the annual post relay group ride. With 31 riders from the Norco Team, Subaru-Trek, Trek Canada, Luna, Scott-3Rox, Rocky Mountain, Cycling BC, Xprezo, Ontario, Quebec, Cycling Dirt, Opus, Cycle Solution, Specialized,  National team coaches, provinicial team coaches, team mechanics, team managers and even guys like Kyle Douglas.  We talked trash, had laughs, made fun of people, did some sweet tricks and gnarly bike skill session involving pump tracking, skidding under tape contests, and drifting contests. It was a good thing Cycling Dirt was there to document some stuff and I took a bunch of GoPro videos..Video coming out soon! Soon after there was a ride to a creek for some cooling off and then did some evening go karting..it go so serious I may have t-boned one of the guys so hard I pulled something in my back. We then had so much fun we bought another round and went for a total of 40 min. I am embarrassed to say that I was so stiff the next morning in my arms and shoulders that getting out of bed was tough..

Here's my Saint Felicien trip in pictures:

 Great Canadian comradery.

 Mike Garrigan getting low low loww.

Myself trying to crush a sideways drift and tuck under the tape.

 Starting the post relay group ride.

 Mid-ride break/chat and mock people.

Post-ride creekin'

Evening go kart session.

Arrived in Saint Felicien for Nationals

Here's a little picture collection from my last week and half at the Mcneely household in Kingston, ON. After some needed downtime and going more than a week without flying to Europe, flying home from Europe, Flying to Ontario, sleeping in hotels and eating gourmet microwave food it was great to eat well, sleep well and be in a family environment! Helps me miss my family and friends less..

Had some beautiful weather in Kingston. Checked out some sights, went swimming, got WAY to into www.strava.com. It will take over the Okanagan in T-minus 14 months.. Ate some awesome ice cream, cooked lots, did some some actual riding, got a nails in my bike tires, raced bikes with high seats on the BMX track and many more life changing things. 

Today we made the long trek from Kingston to Saint Felicien where cross country mountain bike nationals are this weekend. During the trip I managed to read two pages of book before I fell asleep, watched nine episodes of Two and Half Men season 8 episodes 1-9, started Ace Ventura Nature Calls and slept some more. Mcneely also thought it would be a good idea to hit a railway crossing at 100 k/ph. My bike was on the hitch rack and did survive the abuse. By the way, Team BC is put together a top secret team for the national relay..that's all. AND there is some talk and planning of some Sunday evening go karting in town. Blog message me, facebook me, call me, text me, twitter me, or you can even strava me now..

After this weekends nationals, where Cycling Dirt is rumored to be making an appearance, it is onto the Mont-Sainte-Anne world cup in Quebec, then on to the second to last world cup of the season in Windham, New York.

I am quickly heading home so I can take part in this years Axels GrandFondo in Penticton BC on July 8th. Super excited to be home and able to be there for such a fantastic event in, or close to, my home town. I was sad to miss last year's first edition of the Fondo. I am sure this year is going to put a smile on many people's faces! 

The E-van packed and ready for the 8 hr Kingston-Saint Felicien drive.

 The haunted mansion that Evan is or says used to be scared off

 It rained lots the other day..

 Kingston is by far the nicest place I have visited in Ontario, or as people seem to call it "Toronto"

 Trying out a Scott Kelly wheel truing session

 Needed some hydration for steak prep

A very Paleo meal I think even Peter Glassford would be proud of

 Trails in Kingston were pretty minty (Prime Strava segments click here)

 The Evan Mcneely showing off the "ultimate self haircut" 

 Pre-tune up on the hair. Trust me ladies, it looks magical now.

 Mcneely demonstrating the "water punishment" from 1867 at the Kingston Pen.

2011 Test of Humanity GoPro video

It's been long enough but I have finally finished the GoPro video from last fall's Test of Humanity mountain bike race in Summerland BC. I`m already excited and ready for the 2012 edition. More info at http://www.testofhumanity.com/

Kingston Life

Living life at the Mcneely household the past few days. It's been sunny so doing a full overhaul tune up on the race rig was pretty easy. Now I got me some of them slick tires so I roadie bike ride now. Evan showed me all the prime Strava territory, Fort Henry and did a prison like tour. Some of those prisoner's are pretty inventive with all their escape ideas. The craziest was one where a prisoner lost 30 lbs so he could fit into a stack of food trays, which he hollowed out!, and then was transported right out of the maximum security prison..wow. Anyway yesterday I was feeling a little recovered from the weekend and went exploring. Pretty much the road riding is awesome here..Then I think I've gotten hooked on Game of Thrones. I was also lucky to be taught some was very important life lessons on how to cut your own hair. First I watched, laughed, then paid attention to Mcneely as he had some key pointers to make your hair go from not so awesome to pretty awesome. Stay tuned for more. Today is Kingston trail day, watch out!

 

Hardwood Canada Cup Report

4 races, 4 weekends, 4 countries traveled, 10 thousand miles flown, lots of driving and this road trip is only half way done! The past weeks have been exciting with racing and traveling.  Once again I've seen some amazing places, hung out with great people and made some awesome food. Currently landed at the Mcneely household last night. I was even lucky enough to see the Kingston penitentiary on my first night!

Race report from www.CanadianCyclist.com here. Check out Rob Jones photos here.

Here's for the amateur Evan Guthrie race report. Sunday morning started off with an earlier than usual wake up for caffeine consumption and race breakfast. After Cycling BC crushed the Georgian College dorms all week with tasty food, early bed and getting sooo hydrated we were in for a our last meal. Bags were packed, bikes were somewhat dialed after a hallway clean and tune. Courtesy of the skills I have learnt while wrenching at The Bike Barn. It was unlike other years at Hardwood where the usual is sun, dust and fast trails. Race was was cold, raining and just awesome out! After getting a 8th position call up on the front line I was ready to put on the gloves and go. It was a pretty mellow start, I grabbed second wheel and held that until just before the singletrack when a couple big guns like Kabush, Zandstra and Jette jumped ahead. No Problem though as I was able to stay with the front group the first 1.5 laps and then little gaps opened to the front guys and I was in a U23 chase with Mcneely and the flying Bouchard. After loosing track of laps again, thinking lap 4/6 was 5/6. Same issue I dealt with last week. After the legs started to say No to going really hard on lap 5 it was damage control time and I did accomplish more than last weekend by only loosing 3 spots on the last lap and not 4! Nationals are in two weeks and race times should be 1:20-1:30 which should help a bit as Hardwoods almost 1:50 time felt like a marathon. But old guys like Watson live for that and were able to make some last lap attacks. Four minutes back from the engineer himself, Kabush, isn't too shabby. Didn't seem like he dropped the hammer until mid way..but still decent. Finished off with other Evan just ahead. He didn't even slow down for a two up sprint..just floated up ahead at 4 sec..we could have gotten some good crowd cheers!

No cool down as it was cold and wet. Bike got sprayed down and shower were taken from cold hose water. Picked up my prize money, which at least covered the race entry..Packed the Mcneely E van. With two Evans who both bike race that meant an easy van pack with a hockey bag, two luggage bags, two backpacks, personal bags, foam rollers, 5 wheels, two MTB's, a road bike and other random bike racer belongings. Stopped somewhere in, around or near Toronto for some extreme pita and chocolate chip cookies. Arrived in Kingston and slept.

Doing a little Kingston exploration recovery ride today before I sit back down on the couch.

Pictures borrowed from the Mitch Bailey..

Over and out.

Well as I am writing this I am sitting in my Georgian college dorm room for year 4 of travelling to Barrie, ON for the Trek Store Canada Cup with Cycling BC. This is my longest running race/trip I have taken part in. With huge thanks to Cycling BC for making this happen each year. It's an amazing project for the juniors who are looking to make that step up the ranks and hopefully secure a spot for the World team. With that, I've to Barrie many times and haven't explored much. But it is a sign you are travelling to the same place enough when you notice new buildings and stores that have closed...

Here is a quick video with all the pictures from my latest trip to Europe with the Canadian National mountain bike team. 

Bigger update to follow soon, could possibly be post Canada Cup. I am then off to the Evan Mcneely's for the time between this Canada Cup and Nationals in St Felicien, QC.

New video from back in April when the mountain biking in the Okanagan is just dreamy.  If you haven't ridden Smith Creek it's a need to ride right now kind of trail..

Never a dull moment with Cycling BC while travelling Quebec

Well after a great week of hanging out in Quebec City area, thanks to Jeremy Martin, I met up with Cycling BC on Friday and settled into the "LoveStory"(pls see previous post if not in the know of LoveStory) With some great weather over the weekend it meant a few nice laps pre-race day to test the legs. Quinn Moberg and Louis Dillion are the other Cycling BC riders, both poised to tear it up in the junior mens field. As always coach Steve Lund has masterminded a great trip.

Race Report from pedalmag.com

Detailed Results Elite men Page 28 of 29.

Race morning was filled with lots of coffee consumption, chamois time and nervous feelings. 

Race started at noon and with my UCI points I was able to snag a front row start. Led things off for the first lap, exchanged with Mr Bouchard a couple times and then once teammate Raphael Gagne and Cam Jette put the hammer down I was done, couldn't follow 3rd and 4th. Raced "The Mitch" Bailey for 5th and thought the race was over..then found out right at the lap area we had another lap..Junior thinking then caused me to go backwards. Laying down my last bit of energy on the fourth lap made the fifth lap a sufferfest and just holding on for dear life. I was then passed back by Mitch, Andrew "Nova Scotia" L'esperance then passed me like I was standing still on a climb. Phew I couldn't hear/see anyone behind me so I put my head down and focus..But once your legs say no, and body is going in la la land after myself dropping a feed and not drinking much I was then caught by the duo of Adam Morka and Leandre "flying Bouchard". Now sitting in 9th after a good stint at the front, then a stint in 4thish and BOOM! cracked. Now I had to dig even deeper to hold off Antoine"The mexican looking" Caron for 9th. I did manage to accomplish that and hardly be able to stand upright after the race. Hard one on the back for the hardtail but it was a sweet race. So fast, so hard and warm. Satisfied with it, would have been disappointed if I held back and saved energy and finish where I did or even a couple spots higher. It's a Canada Cup and as you can see through results the six U23's in the top 10 that are more than capable of the podium or even higher. 

Lastnight I had a nice midnight wake by ride Louis Dillion yelling "Fire, Fire" So I ran outside to find out coach in his gonch with a hose putting out a pretty large sized fire that was overtaking the chicken coop. Apparently I am such a good sleeper that I didn't hear them yelling for me for about 30 min, then were in and out of the house calling 911, putting out the fire totally on their won by the way. With Coach Steve making the save of the day by running into the burning chicken coop and grabbing bikes and bike boxes. Could have been pretty bad. I guess thanks to Louis who felt the need to drain his bladder. Pretty disappointed I missed the fire party but it made for a pretty eventful evening. After many questions like ``Are you smokers!?" from the police and some investigating from the 15 firefighters that showed up nothing was determined. Quote of the night, Steve Lund "Never a dull moment while travelling with Cycling BC in Quebec" 

Off to Toronto today for Canada Cup finals in Hardwood Hills next week. Stay tuned..

Beautiful day for the Baie-St-Paul Canada Cup today! Super pumped to get some racing under me on home soil. Again this year the organizers have put together a beautiful course. Racing is at noon eastern time, 9 AM western time. Hopefully an update this evening or tomorrow!

Watch Ryder Hesjedal today at the Giro where history has already been made and he could now be the first ever Canadian to win a grand tour at the Giro d'italia!!
http://www.stopstream.tv/39/76/397656.html

Louis Dillion today quoted "So on Monday I may have done something pretty stupid. Well not really, but I didn't run all winter and I thought it would be a good idea to take my dog for an hour and half run. I went bare feet because I don't like runners, they hurt my knees" I then laughed and said "a run in bare feet" He replied with "It was just a jog, not full out" I then mentioned it may not have been smart with a Canada Cup race this weekend, but he said "The Africans do it" I then laugh "What that's how your supposed to run. And I'm cheap."

That now starts off my week in Baie-St-Paul, Quebec with a good laugh. Pre-rode some course yesterday and race prep tomorrow. Cycling BC gang has landed and we have now settled into our "LoveStory" house here. Keep posted for some straight up beauty blog posts pre, post and lets hope not during race updates. Because if I did during updates it would most likely mean I was really sucking..

BSP is a fantastic little town with some greats sights. Check more out here and a little wikipedia mind blowing information reading here.